Why should you use Lo-Lo Beds?

03-May-2016 | Press,Knowledge-Hub

Aged Care facilities and Hospitals are consistently aiming at the reduction of the risk of falls and injury to residence in their facilities. There is, however, a limit between reducing injury and going so far as entrapment.

In the bedroom of these facilities, previously High-Low beds were used with railing to ensure that elderly patients did not fall out of beds and injure themselves. While these beds moved up and down, the height was not low enough to prevent injury. However, the railing that was used to keep patients in creating an issue where patients were not able to get out of bed when they wished, thereby entrapping them or otherwise causing an increased risk of falls when elderly residents tried to climb over the rails. In 1999 bed rail entrapment rules were added to the national standard AS/NZS 3200.2.38:2007 dictating that such railing must be removed from beds.

This created a need for a better solution as accidental falls from such heights could potentially be fatal. Lo-lo beds were introduced to alleviate this problem. A Lo lo bed can be lowered to the ground with a minimum height of approximately 235mm from the top of the mattress. This means that if residents fall out of bed, the injury is minimised.

While this solution was great in theory, the design of these beds was restricted to large ‘tombstone’ like pillars on either end of the bed which would allow the bed to move up and down on rails. This created an extremely ‘Hospital’ like look and also reduced the visibility of patients from staff, as well as patient’s view of the room.

The new innovative design that has recently been adopted by HFA has managed to get around the issue of the ‘tombstone’, completely eliminating it, yet still allowing the Lolo bed to come down to the very low level of 130mm to the top of frame. The Column-less Safecare bed allows bed heads and foot boards to be used and a domestic look to be achieved. Creating a homely feel for the patients and easier access for staff and the main benefit of allowing the lo-lo bed to be lowered to this height creating a safe sleeping height for the residents.